The Quiet Man weighs in: Iowa City's economic dilemma
A couple weeks ago I was driving through Coralville with my parents and uncle from California. After having dinner with them, I became an unwilling passenger on a tour of Iowa City’s richest districts. We drove past West High and through the über rich neighborhoods north of Melrose Avenue. (Goggling at big houses, then labeling them ostentatious, seems to be a common passion among the Boomers I know.) On our way back to Iowa City, to drive past a massive house on Prairie du Chien, my mom said something to the effect of, “Coralville is very business friendly. It gets all the new stores and businesses. Iowa City doesn’t get any.” A few other comments were made, and then my uncle, supposedly a laissez-faire capitalist despite a ferocious opposition to immigration, told me, “Why don’t you run for city council and change things, [Quiet Man]?”
“I don’t want big box retail in Iowa City, either,” I said.
And such seems to be the crux of IC’s economic dilemma. That and seemingly illogical decision-making by its elected officials.
Bobblehead has been weighing in a lot recently about Iowa City’s floundering efforts to counter neighboring Coralville’s “economic miracle.” Having discussed IC’s economic dilemma in our emails to one another, I decided it was high time to make public my own thoughts on this befuddling matter.
Bobblehead and I both remember the pre-Coral Ridge Mall glory days, when downtown IC had a vibrant variety of shops and two movie theaters, the Old Capitol Mall had two arcades, and Best Buy and Sears were both located on the southeast side. However, everything changed in 1998 when IC’s retail scene was overshadowed by the massive mall next door. Having lost major anchors to Coral Ridge, Iowa City’s commercial centers died, and bars and liquor stores opened in the vacancies left by locally owned shops downtown.
IC has been playing catch-up ever since. While the Pepperwood Plaza, Sycamore Mall, and Old Capitol Mall have been redeveloped or repurposed, officials in IC have focused the lion’s share of their economic improvement/maintenance efforts on the downtown area, trying to preserve the traditional downtown feel while courting the development of modernist towers with first-floor commercial space and condos above. It’s not working out too well — unless the goal is yuppification or the creation of a Midwestern San Francisco, carefully coordinated by a tyrannical minority of property and business owners.
Needless to say, with memories of Campus 3, City News, and “three women peeing,” I am a downtown traditionalist. I love downtown and think it has a nice variety of businesses (though it is a little top heavy with bars and restaurants). But I want it to be better. I would like it to be what it used to be: a shopping, eating, drinking, and entertainment destination for everyone, not just college kids with mommy and daddy’s credit card and silver-haired liberals. Plus, I missed being able to get everything I need on the east side and not having to deal with Coralville.
Though dealing with the concrete sprawl of the Californicated Coral Ridge area may make me sick, I think it’s something those of us over on the forgotten east side will have to deal with for a while. I think the area is already oversaturated with big box chain stores serving an entire region. Coralville has that covered. Though we have two Walmart’s, I am unsure if there is enough demand for another Target, Best Buy, Kohls, et cetera, et cetera. Plus, there’s Kmart on Highway 6. Everyone seems to forget about Kmart, probably because — let’s admit it — that neighborhood is pretty dark. It does not fit in the sterile, clean, and white-friendly model of economic prosperity. Regardless, the Walmarts and Targets of the world seem content to let Kmart have the east side.
Not only that, but the east side lacks the high-capacity road infrastructure a Coral Ridge Whatever-esque retail area would require. I’m talking something to feed and empty a massive parking lot. The only thing comparable in IC is the Highway 6 by-pass on the southeast side. It’s not pretty — frankly, it is downright ugly — but it is what we have, and it is probably not good enough. Upgrade Rochester, Muscatine, or Scott? I suppose you could, but there is way too much residential development already.
(Of course, if the price of gas and owning a car ever become prohibitively expensive for the majority of Americans, Coralville’s car-centric economic model will be relegated to history books.)
That may be another problem with Iowa City: it is too residential. It is not conducive to big box retail. And I think I am perfectly fine with that. Coralville can keep the traffic and desolate stretches of concrete. Plus, luring big box retail would require competitive incentives — i.e. TIF districts. Like a whore working the free market corner, Coralville twirls its feather boa and leans into open car windows and says, “Hey, suga! You’ll only have to pay a fraction of your property taxes in Coralville. We’ll sell it to the public with an expiration date, but it’ll last forever, and that’ll be our little secret.”
Much to Bobblehead’s disappointment, IC may have to concede the ugly, suburban big box thing to Coralville. Basically, IC lost out. Which leaves us with downtown.
What’s the problem downtown? Probably a couple things, but here’s a little anecdote.
While visiting the Great River Brewing Company taproom in Davenport, I eavesdropped (like a good journalist) on a conversation between the brewery owner and the people sitting next to me at the bar. Great River was previously located in Iowa City and known as the Old Capitol Brew Works. In 2008, the brewing operation moved to downtown Davenport. While the owner was explaining this to the man and woman next to me, and said this about property taxes: “I was paying thirty-seven-hundred bucks for a building in Iowa City. Here I’m paying two grand for an entire block!”
Downtown Davenport is obviously not downtown Iowa City, which makes a huge difference in regards to property value and local taxes. But what can IC officials do about prices presumably set by the market? Probably nothing, but I suppose they could lower the property tax rate downtown. However, would that actually spur development and attract businesses when it seems most of the area is owned by a handful of people? People whom, undoubtedly, control rent.
As Bobblehead once pointed out, rent downtown is too damn high. But what can the city do about it since it is, theoretically, set by the market? There’s always rent control, but, of course, that is an example of big government interfering with gung-ho American capitalism. “Don’t tread on me!” the five people owning downtown will say, and the city council will oblige. Lowering property taxes does not guarantee rents will decrease, too. In California, renters were encouraged to vote for Prop 13’s property tax cap because it would supposedly drive down rent. Instead of passing their tax savings to renters after Prop 13’s passage, property owners just pocketed the difference and continued increasing rent anyway.
So, what do we do? I have no clue, but it cannot be a continuation of the misguided and, perhaps a touch corrupt, decision making that has been the trend for at least a decade.
I will say, though, if I ever did run for city council I would be an advocate for free parking. All day, everyday, everywhere. Uproot the parking meters and tear down the ticket gates and payment booths in the ramps. Free parking for all! Parking in the Capitol Street ramp, one probably does as much walking to businesses downtown as one would do while visiting the Coral Ridge Mall. However, no one can cheaply gorge themselves silly on fast food fat smothered in fat, served with a side of fat, or buy XXXL sized jeggings downtown, a fact that seems to be driving Bobblehead insane.
Of course, IC could always follow the last resort economic plan adopted by many Iowa communities since the late-eighties: build a casino.
“I don’t want big box retail in Iowa City, either,” I said.
And such seems to be the crux of IC’s economic dilemma. That and seemingly illogical decision-making by its elected officials.
Bobblehead has been weighing in a lot recently about Iowa City’s floundering efforts to counter neighboring Coralville’s “economic miracle.” Having discussed IC’s economic dilemma in our emails to one another, I decided it was high time to make public my own thoughts on this befuddling matter.
Bobblehead and I both remember the pre-Coral Ridge Mall glory days, when downtown IC had a vibrant variety of shops and two movie theaters, the Old Capitol Mall had two arcades, and Best Buy and Sears were both located on the southeast side. However, everything changed in 1998 when IC’s retail scene was overshadowed by the massive mall next door. Having lost major anchors to Coral Ridge, Iowa City’s commercial centers died, and bars and liquor stores opened in the vacancies left by locally owned shops downtown.
IC has been playing catch-up ever since. While the Pepperwood Plaza, Sycamore Mall, and Old Capitol Mall have been redeveloped or repurposed, officials in IC have focused the lion’s share of their economic improvement/maintenance efforts on the downtown area, trying to preserve the traditional downtown feel while courting the development of modernist towers with first-floor commercial space and condos above. It’s not working out too well — unless the goal is yuppification or the creation of a Midwestern San Francisco, carefully coordinated by a tyrannical minority of property and business owners.
Needless to say, with memories of Campus 3, City News, and “three women peeing,” I am a downtown traditionalist. I love downtown and think it has a nice variety of businesses (though it is a little top heavy with bars and restaurants). But I want it to be better. I would like it to be what it used to be: a shopping, eating, drinking, and entertainment destination for everyone, not just college kids with mommy and daddy’s credit card and silver-haired liberals. Plus, I missed being able to get everything I need on the east side and not having to deal with Coralville.
Though dealing with the concrete sprawl of the Californicated Coral Ridge area may make me sick, I think it’s something those of us over on the forgotten east side will have to deal with for a while. I think the area is already oversaturated with big box chain stores serving an entire region. Coralville has that covered. Though we have two Walmart’s, I am unsure if there is enough demand for another Target, Best Buy, Kohls, et cetera, et cetera. Plus, there’s Kmart on Highway 6. Everyone seems to forget about Kmart, probably because — let’s admit it — that neighborhood is pretty dark. It does not fit in the sterile, clean, and white-friendly model of economic prosperity. Regardless, the Walmarts and Targets of the world seem content to let Kmart have the east side.
Not only that, but the east side lacks the high-capacity road infrastructure a Coral Ridge Whatever-esque retail area would require. I’m talking something to feed and empty a massive parking lot. The only thing comparable in IC is the Highway 6 by-pass on the southeast side. It’s not pretty — frankly, it is downright ugly — but it is what we have, and it is probably not good enough. Upgrade Rochester, Muscatine, or Scott? I suppose you could, but there is way too much residential development already.
(Of course, if the price of gas and owning a car ever become prohibitively expensive for the majority of Americans, Coralville’s car-centric economic model will be relegated to history books.)
That may be another problem with Iowa City: it is too residential. It is not conducive to big box retail. And I think I am perfectly fine with that. Coralville can keep the traffic and desolate stretches of concrete. Plus, luring big box retail would require competitive incentives — i.e. TIF districts. Like a whore working the free market corner, Coralville twirls its feather boa and leans into open car windows and says, “Hey, suga! You’ll only have to pay a fraction of your property taxes in Coralville. We’ll sell it to the public with an expiration date, but it’ll last forever, and that’ll be our little secret.”
Much to Bobblehead’s disappointment, IC may have to concede the ugly, suburban big box thing to Coralville. Basically, IC lost out. Which leaves us with downtown.
What’s the problem downtown? Probably a couple things, but here’s a little anecdote.
While visiting the Great River Brewing Company taproom in Davenport, I eavesdropped (like a good journalist) on a conversation between the brewery owner and the people sitting next to me at the bar. Great River was previously located in Iowa City and known as the Old Capitol Brew Works. In 2008, the brewing operation moved to downtown Davenport. While the owner was explaining this to the man and woman next to me, and said this about property taxes: “I was paying thirty-seven-hundred bucks for a building in Iowa City. Here I’m paying two grand for an entire block!”
Downtown Davenport is obviously not downtown Iowa City, which makes a huge difference in regards to property value and local taxes. But what can IC officials do about prices presumably set by the market? Probably nothing, but I suppose they could lower the property tax rate downtown. However, would that actually spur development and attract businesses when it seems most of the area is owned by a handful of people? People whom, undoubtedly, control rent.
As Bobblehead once pointed out, rent downtown is too damn high. But what can the city do about it since it is, theoretically, set by the market? There’s always rent control, but, of course, that is an example of big government interfering with gung-ho American capitalism. “Don’t tread on me!” the five people owning downtown will say, and the city council will oblige. Lowering property taxes does not guarantee rents will decrease, too. In California, renters were encouraged to vote for Prop 13’s property tax cap because it would supposedly drive down rent. Instead of passing their tax savings to renters after Prop 13’s passage, property owners just pocketed the difference and continued increasing rent anyway.
So, what do we do? I have no clue, but it cannot be a continuation of the misguided and, perhaps a touch corrupt, decision making that has been the trend for at least a decade.
I will say, though, if I ever did run for city council I would be an advocate for free parking. All day, everyday, everywhere. Uproot the parking meters and tear down the ticket gates and payment booths in the ramps. Free parking for all! Parking in the Capitol Street ramp, one probably does as much walking to businesses downtown as one would do while visiting the Coral Ridge Mall. However, no one can cheaply gorge themselves silly on fast food fat smothered in fat, served with a side of fat, or buy XXXL sized jeggings downtown, a fact that seems to be driving Bobblehead insane.
Of course, IC could always follow the last resort economic plan adopted by many Iowa communities since the late-eighties: build a casino.
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